Caller ID is a feature that provides identification information of a calling party to a called party thereby allowing the called party to identify the calling party prior to accepting the call. Normally, the calling party identifying information is displayed on a screen of the called party's telephone.
Telephone service provided over the public switched telephone network (PSTN) includes the calling party number (CPN) with every call, much like a return address on an envelope. Transmitted along with the CPN is a privacy flag that tells the telephone switch at the receiving end whether to share your number with the recipient. If blocking is implemented, the phone company receiving a call “knows” the calling party number but will not share it with the called party.
Telephone service that is provided over a digital network (e.g., VoIP telephone services) uses packets to convey call data, signaling data, and calling party information. Digital telephone service providers typically provide digital calls to subscribing parties over a packet switched network (e.g., a cable network or the Internet) while interfacing with the PSTN to receive calls from and send calls to PSTN-based telephone numbers.
In a cable environment, digital telephone service is provided over a high speed data (HSD) segment of the hybrid fiber coax (HFC) network. Typically, a digital telephone subscriber is also a subscriber of the HSD services of a cable provider. Thus, a digital telephone subscriber will use the HSD segment for both voice and data (e.g., Internet) service. If the telephone subscriber is using a “softphone,” the subscriber may be using the HSD segment for voice and Internet connectivity simultaneously.
While the Internet connectivity and digital telephone services are both HSD applications, the services tend to operate independently. That is, a subscriber taking digital telephone service from a digital telephone provider may not sense the relationship between the transport of the telephone call data and the transport of Internet-bound packets. What would be useful would be a system and method that leverages the use of one service to encourage use of the other.
In an embodiment hereof, digital telephone service and HSD service interact through the provision of caller identification (CID) information over an instant-messaging (IM) service. By way of illustration, CID information is sent through the IM service client. A “pop-up” message is displayed when a VoIP system or other telephony service detects an incoming call. A telephone subscriber can program his or her IM management to block CID pops from a list, selectively reject an incoming call, or use a variety of other features described below.